Bashar al-Assad

AMMAN, Aug 20 – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday that while his country had foiled Western designs to topple him, his army had not won Syria’s war and the fight was continuing to crush a six-year old insurgency. In an televised address, Assad said that even though there were signs of victory after

JERUSALEM, Aug 20 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss the Middle East with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they meet in the Russian resort of Sochi next week, his office said on Saturday. Israel is concerned Iran is trying to establish a permanent military foothold in Syria. Netanyahu said in a speech last

BEIRUT, July 1 – The Syrian government on Saturday dismissed a report by the international chemical weapons watchdog that said the banned nerve agent sarin was used in an April attack in northern Syria, saying it lacked “any credibility”. Western governments including the United States have said the Syrian government carried out the attack in

By Dmitry Solovyov and Jeff Mason MOSCOW/WASHINGTON, June 27 – Russia denounced a U.S. warning to the Syrian leadership that it will pay a heavy price for any chemical weapons attack, and dismissed White House assertions that a strike was being prepared as “unacceptable”. The White House said on Monday the preparations in Syria were

WASHINGTON, June 27 – The White House warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that he and his military would “pay a heavy price” if it conducted a chemical weapons attack and said the United States had reason to believe such preparations were underway. The White House said in a statement released late on Monday

By Michael Georgy RAQQA, Syria, June 21 – U.S.-backed forces are closing in on Daesh in Raqqa, but local Syrians who have escaped the battlefield are worried about what comes after the fight. Dozens of them have volunteered to help rebuild the town once the militants have been defeated. The aim of organisation they have

By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al Khalidi BEIRUT/AMMAN, June 14 – Confrontation between Qatar and Saudi Arabia is creating unease among Syrian rebels who expect the crisis between two of their biggest state backers to deepen divisions in the opposition to President Bashar Al Assad. Together with Turkey and the United States, Qatar and Saudi

By Maha El Dahan and Lisa Barrington ABU DHABI/BEIRUT, June 13 – Syria has received 225,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, part of a 1.2 million tonne wheat deal struck in February through its state grain buyer. “So far 225,000 tonnes have arrived in total, this is through deals with six local trading firms and all

VIENNA, May 11 – An Austrian court jailed a Syrian asylum seeker for life for murdering 20 wounded soldiers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army while fighting alongside an anti-Assad militia near the city of Homs, a court spokesman said. An interpreter had told the court the 27-year-old man recounted the episode to him in

RIYADH, Dec 16 – Saudi police arrested a Syrian resident in Riyadh after he posted a photo of himself on Facebook praising the recapture of his home city of Aleppo by government forces, according to a report in al-Riyadh newspaper on Friday. A photo published with the report showed a man with his hand raised